Why Being A Minnow Isn't Degrading

in #whaleshares7 years ago (edited)

Greetings steemians! I have been hearing people talking recently about changing the terminology we use to distinguish between various levels of steem power. Apparently, some people find the term minnow degrading. However, I see nothing inherently degrading about the term minnow. Outside of steemit and crypto the only term we use that would ever be considered degrading would be whale, in fact. If someone outside of steemit were to call me a minnow, or a dolphin or orca for that matter, I would think that person was strange and probably avoid them as much as possible but I would not be offended. However, if someone called me a whale I would probably think they were calling me fat and might get a little offended or at least a little defensive.

Minnows are by far the largest population here on steemit. For this reason they would basically be synonymous with the idea of a normal user. Steemit itself has only been around for a little over a year. Unless you were around from the very beginning, which most people weren't or you had a ton of money laying around to invest in steem, chances are you are a minnow. Even some people that have been here for over a year are still minnows. This can be for a variety of reasons but most likely they don't have the time or inclination to dedicate to the platform to quickly rise through the ranks. This doesn't make their content any less worthy of consideration just the same as having a bunch of steem power doesn't make someone's content more worthy of consideration. Mostly it is because they don't expect steemit to pay their bills and fund their lives and are busy working jobs.

The fact is, unless you have spent the last several years learning to code so you can build tools that benefit the community, are a major YouTube personality that can bring a large following with you to the platform, or you're a modern day Shakespeare who can wow everyone with their engaging writing, Steemit is probably not going to ever pay your bills. Basically, unless you have skills that you could be using elsewhere to make a good living but have chosen to migrate to this platform because you can benefit the whole then you aren't likely to ever make your living off of Steemit.

Most of the users here have no problem being called a minnow. It is what we call a normal user and most people have no problem being normal people. Only people that think they're better than other people would even find the term degrading. They see other people making decent money off their posts and think they should be able to do the same by writing shit posts. However, the people who do make good money off their posts have usually donated the skills they spent years learning to improving the platform. If you can't even bother to learn to format your posts or properly spell words then why would you think that you should make the same? Why should we change our terminology that most people have no problem with to suit your ego, especially since you will eventually find whatever other term we change it to degrading since it is not the term itself but the application of it that you find degrading. I am proud to be a minnow and I see absolutely nothing degrading about the term. Thanks for reading and happy steeming!


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@jphenderson What is in a name, said Shakespeare. It does not bother me to be called a minnow. For that matter, I really do not care what others call me because it does not determine what I am. What I do, my personality and my skill-set determines what I am. This is true in real life and on Steemit.

Thank you for your views on minnows. Upvoted.

I am proud to be a minnow and have learnt some skills to make my blogs interesting. Will keep working at it even if I become a whale some day :)

To be honest what is in the name?

What matters the most here on Steem is the amount of work we do.And it is really tough to rise to a Whale status.

If you see the Trending page of any tag, you will see that the same few stories have been trending for dwys. Very few stories tend to go on the trending page.

You don't think there is anything in a name? Quite a bit goes into a name my friend.

Hey buddy @jphenderson, a good post here. I never bothered to think whether the term minnow was offensive for me.. As I was busy in doing the actual stuff and that is to produce some quality content and engaging with the steemit community.
In my opinion, more than thinking and cribbing or getting offended by the term minnow, we need to continue to work towards improving our reputation on the platform and hope for the best... ✌️✌️Peace..

Couldn't agree more

Just call me an old fart. Millennials these days EXPECT everything to be handed to them on a silver platter. Very few are willing to work hard to achieve their goals. It's just sad.

Yes, I don't know where this sense of entitlement comes from. They expect everything handed to them while everyone has to tiptoe around them making sure not to hurt their feelings... ridiculous. Thanks for your service.

Ohh dam i tought with your BIG Ego you want to be at last -Unicorn !

I want to be a super magickal manticore in space

I can't be a minnow because minnows aren't big enough to squeeze my massive ego into....

(that's my head exploding from trying to contain my massive ego)

Haha think i see some exploding things in you , but idk if was your head !

"Only people that think they're better than other people would even find the term degrading." Exactly. And, it could always be worse ... at least we're not krill!

I always find it hilarious when people allow language to have such power over them that it actually affects their psychological well being. It's just words.

I don't really use the terms "minnow", "dolphin", and "whale" because I just find them silly. I wasn't around for the creation of the words in this usage so they just aren't part of my lexicon. But I have no problem with them other than that.

Yea it's just a descriptive term. I don't define myself by words or my steem power so personally I don't really care what terms they use.

I am proud to be a minnow haha ... What is considered to be a dolphin? :)

Dolphins are people with over 30k steem power I believe but I don't think it's very clearly defined.

Yeah, I heard it was between 20k-30k :)

If you have 10 million vests you're a dolphin, at 100 million you are an Orca. A whale is too far away for me to know, lol.

I'll call myself a minnow with no problem
I have only been here a month
And I don't have 10.000 steem power
So why care
Keep it up
Good article

I guess some people just like to complain. I don't mind being called a minnow, although I'd rather be called a cat. :-)

You may like to have some of my future tokens , they can change your status on ,,Cat" :)

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